Redline Magazine thrash day at Bruntingthorpe Proving ground (Pics and videos)

dxb335d · 04-30-2008, 12:47 PM

Yesterday i was invited to a Thrash test day soon to be featured in Redline magazine (a UK Modified car magazine). These werent your everyday standard cars but highly modified road cars. I was invited as a re-mapped diesel would make interesting reading considering how advanced they have become and in particular the 335d twin turbo unit.
Bruntingthorpe: (A large privately owned Aerodrome which was once an American airbase)

Bruntingthorpe Proving ground was hired for the day by the magazine and no cost was passed on to any car tester

All in all 8 cars ran with the Datron timing gear strapped on.
Ranging from a 450bhp Supercharged Civic to a 550bhp 911 Turbo. With a 335van in between lol.

Donning the Skid Lid

Renton, a writer for the magazine!

About to launch:p

Cossie Westfield = FAST

Mk4 escort with Cosworth engine and skyline running gear which was also ballistic!

I got to drive a 911 Turbo finally (550bhp) was was fast as ****. I did 150mph in it before the owner asked me to back off lol.
Just before i drove it i asked the owner to take me for a spin in which he replied, no but Maria can (his GF)
MAN SHE CAN FECKING DRIVE

An indicated 188mph, which going off the other top speed runs it did all day was an actual 184 mph, the fastest the car had been all day and the fastest ive ever been in a car!! Shame the timing gear was not strapped on

She was driving down the straight with one had on the wheel:bulge: 188mph:bulge:

And round the track's curvaceous bends was nailing it like a true pro:thumsup: Very impressed!!!!!!! Lovely girl too:p

. (She had not driven a car for 4 weeks as she is currently banned lol)
Back to the 335d and my runs.
I did a GPS verifed
0-60: 5.4
0-100: 12.5
1/4mile: 13.7@104.6mph
153/154mph (which was well off the clock)

So not as fast as what ive done at the Pod (13.5@105mph) but still reasonalby happy with the times. I think i could have gone quicker but kept ending up loading the torque converter up massively which held the car back upon launch.
I did what felt like a gazillion top speed runs though, with and without the timing gear (more without) and i couldnt get past my top speed.
What was intersting was i proved once again that the car in gear is a monster not with the timing gear unfortunately.
Ill explain, there was a 500bhp Audi S4 with various mods etc.
On on way to the ''camp'' he was behind me on the back straight and we nailed it from about 80-140mph and the gap stayed the same, so i presumed that he was nailing it.
First thing we said when we parked up was (pointing at the DXB) ''That thing dont hang about mate''
He could not pull upto me thru that range (80-140mph) He was impressed. That got my hopes up for the day but it was shortlived.
The Audi launched like a bastid (4wd) and totally annihilated me from standing starts, he did a 4.4 0-60 i think a 9.7 0-100 and 176mph.
So its a far quicker car, but goes to show on the roll the 335d (Mapped) can really hold its own:confused0068::thumsup: A car which can catch out much more powerful cars on the road

Check my 3 youtube vids!

- ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Me accelerating down the back straight to 150mph (indicated) Being passed by a bike who was flying all day whilst i was travelling 135mph

I then got to the bottom of the straight with TC/Stability turned right off, turned into the bend one had on the wheel at 75+mph and the back end stepped out kept my foot in and both tyres lit up and then i due to having only one hand on the wheel could not apply anymore opposite lock dropped the camera and left the track in a cloud of smoke and span right off onto the grass... Car was caked in grass

I was not the first person to spin fortunately, the Westfield spun earlier on the day!!

- ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

One of many top speed runs from a standing start off the clock there as you can see, but GPS was 153/154mph!!
I did try coming round the last bend quick and onto the long straight but it didnt help, as by the time i had straightened up i was goign the same speed at the same point as i was from a standing start (65mph)
The place is IMMENSE, SOOO HUGE... i was in awe of the whole Aerodrome all day:bulge:

and would love to go there again! Sitting at one end of the straight and not being able to see the other is crazy cool... Just nail it and hhope for the best lol. Quite hard to judge your braking distance once at the other end. Did loads of high speed come downs and the brakes stood up well

- ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Cossie Westfield pulling a burnout before his run to 60 in 3.7 secs

and 0-100 in 7 sec
Highlights of the day..
No1: Sitting in a 911 turbo doing 188mph driven by a BIRD:p
No2: Doing an Indicated 160+mph all day long
No3: Doing 0-100 faster than DMS themselves in a 335d!
No4: Being in a magazine feature:thumbsup:
No5: Driving a 550bhp 911 turbo and doing 0-150 slowing down to 100 then back to 130 and slowing down again all in the same space of time it took my car to do 0-154.
No6: Just being part of such an event!
Downsides..
No1: Not going as fast at the car has done before
No2: How cold and windy it was all day, not to mention the rain

Most of the atendees at some point or other during the day asked me about the car and commented on how nice looking she and how nice the wheeld were

a couple of people comparing them to the Two Porshe wheels that were there (Cayenne and 911) with the twist to them

I have several more vids, consisting of the 911 turbo, westfield and one of the mental civics. But there taking ages to upload so will post as and when.
The 450bhp Supercharge Type-R's first run was a 7.2 0-60 nearly two seconds behind me due to so much wheel spin but still managed a 12.0 0-100 half a second quicker, so clawed back 2.5 seconds from 60-100mph

Now thats impressive!!!
There was a photoshoot where each car had lights around it for pro pics for the mag and also a camera man hanging out of a truck for rolling shots. I lookforward to reading the report in Redline magazine and seeing the pics!

when i recieve the pics i will post them up for you!

Carlos

dxb335d · 05-04-2008, 07:28 AM

No one cares to comment?

celsisone · 06-28-2008, 07:33 AM

What was intersting was i proved once again that the car in gear is a monster not with the timing gear unfortunately.
Ill explain, there was a 500bhp Audi S4 with various mods etc.
On on way to the ''camp'' he was behind me on the back straight and we nailed it from about 80-140mph and the gap stayed the same, so i presumed that he was nailing it.

interesting about the Audi S4. may be the owner of the audi wasn't kicking it because he had been sitting in the cafe for 2 hours waiting for the rest of the people to show up and that the car was not warmed up.